All-Day Muffins

I firmly believe that muffins are the greatest snack you can have. I know this is highly debatable, but I stand by my opinion. Here's why:

• They have sweetness. All the best snacks are sweet.
• They have fiber. Fiber keeps you full.
• They are infinitely variable. Variety is the... you know.
• They are appropriate to eat at any time, day or night.  

I was once the head cook at a camp, and we baked our muffins in sheet pans. Easier to prepare, easier to serve, easier to clean up after. (Who wants to spend their morning scrubbing out 100 holes? Not me. And not my dish crew.) Any leftover slabs of muffin got piled on a plate, and though they might languish in the morning, the kids would fight over them come 2 o'clock. 

Kitchen Smackdown! Rhubarb Cake!

As mentioned in my last post, I was recently gifted with HEAPS and HEAPS of rhubarb. That same day, I'd examined the three rhubarb plants in our front yard and saw that they were more than ready to be cut. What to do with so much rhubarb? The sweet-tart, and sweet-sweet-sweet answer, is after the jump.

What to do with Rhubarb, or, My sink overfloweth

Last week I was at my local fruit stand and saw an employee sorting through the rhubarb. She turned to a colleague and said "It's all bad. It all has to go." Now, something you need to know about me: I love free stuff. The rhubarb looked all right to me, so I said to her in my saddest-sounding voice, "You're throwing all of that away?" And just like I hoped, she offered it to me. For free. The photo above has the cantaloupe for comparison purposes.

I wish I would have weighed the box. I think it was between 30 and 40 pounds. The ends were a tiny bit slimy, and maybe three stalks were getting soft, but the rest was great. I washed it, chopped it up, and froze it in zippy bags in 10 cup quantities. That was 50 cups worth of rhubarb, and I still had one-third of that box there. 

So what did I do with the rest? I'll let you know in future posts, but here's a hint: chutney. And jam. And cake. And crisp. And if you want some rhubarb, we actually have a bunch growing in our front yard we'd be happy to share!